Rep. Kim Joong-ro of the liberal People's Party speaks at a meeting at the National Assembly. / Courtesy of Kim Joong-ro's office

By Choi Ha-young

Rep. Kim Joong-ro of the People's Party has been vocal about how South Korea should counter a nuclear North Korea.

The former Army general believes that the best way for Seoul to deal with Pyongyang's nuclear weapons is to arm itself with nuclear weapons ― whether it is to bring back U.S. tactical nuclear weapons or develop its own.

This belief contradicts the liberal party's official stance. The party supports denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, but Kim insists that Seoul needs a balancing act against North Korea becoming a nuclear power.

"It is time for Seoul to develop a roadmap to have nuclear weapons," Kim, a member of the National Assembly National Defense Committee, said in an interview with The Korea Times.

In the liberal party, which follows the late former President Kim Dae-jung's iconic Sunshine Policy, Kim is persuading colleague lawmakers to change the party's stance on nuclear weapons.

"I know some people are allergic to nuclear development," he said. "By creating a roadmap ― when and how to enhance the nation's nuclear capacity ― Seoul can increase its diplomatic leverage to nudge Pyongyang and Beijing.

"I'm not saying that we should have nuclear arms right away. Based on talks with the U.S., South Korea needs to come up with a blueprint about nuclear development in the long term. Nuclear armament could be the nation's choice in the worst case."

Recently, the largest conservative Liberty Korea Party (LKP) sent lawmakers to Washington, D.C., calling for the redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons, which got the cold shoulder from the U.S. Meanwhile, President Moon Jae-in dismissed the idea of nuclear armament and the redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons.

Unlike the hawkish policy line of the LKP, Kim supports of dialogue with North Korea. "Dialogue should be under way even during wartime," he said. "We should start any kind of dialogue if it helps to break the deadlock in the face of the nuclear crisis."

Other than President Moon's military reform initiatives ― completing self-reliant security capacity, regaining wartime operation control (OPCON) from the U.S. and eradicating corruption in the defense industry ― Kim called for investment in early warning satellite technology to detect North Korea's provocations.

"The scale of the South Korean military is excessively large," he said. "By streamlining the bulky organization, the nation can buy high-tech weapons such as the satellite system and improve soldiers' welfare. To retake OPCON, South Korea should desperately improve its own information quality through the satellite system."